Camp NaNoWriMo 2017

I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo for the first time this past April. Sorry it's taken me so long to write about it, but I've been somewhat busy lately. More on that some other time, though.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Camp NaNoWriMo is a more laid-back summertime version of National Novel Writing Month where you set your own writing goal, get grouped into virtual cabins with other writers, and track your writing progress on a particular project over the course of a single month.

The Plan

I intended to use Camp NaNoWriMo as an excuse to finish my NaNoWriMo 2016 novel, because although I actually met my goal for that event, it turned out that my novel was destined to be more than 50,000 words long. Because the 50k word goal is a bit of a strenuous commitment; I decided to set myself a more reasonable goal of 25 hours of writing for camp.

Unfortunately, the website only allows a minimum of 30 hours, so I had to pick that as my goal instead. Still, that seemed doable, and more importantly I figured it was more than enough time needed to spend on my novel in order to finally finish it - it specifically being a second draft that I intend to shop around for publishers upon completion and before torturing myself over any more rewrites.

The Results

It turned out that setting an hour goal instead of a word count goal allowed me to shift my writing priorities in a way that, while helpful, was not conducive to my goal of finishing the actual novel. You see, despite feeling initially confident in the outline I'd laid out for the story when beginning NaNoWriMo 2016, while writing I found myself incredibly dissatisfied with the subplot of the main character's roommate, as well as the roommate herself as a character. Therefor, I ended up using much of Camp NaNoWriMo rewriting that character and her scenes to better fit the story I was trying to tell.  I did get around to writing some new scenes, resulting in a more complete book than I had to begin, but I ended the month with almost the entire final third of the story still unwritten.

What's more is that, as time has gone on, I've found myself increasingly disinterested in the novel as my growing interests pull me toward science fiction stories instead. I still intend to finish it, but the simple fact is that my heart isn't in it like it used to be. Additionally, as I've been developing new stories in my head, I've realized that I've been building this story on a somewhat poor foundation of planning and outlining - by which I mean I wasn't as knowledgeable about conceptualizing what makes a good story when I initially planned it, so it's as if I'm now trying to stack heavy bricks onto various fallen branches that I once found and stuck standing up in the sand. (For those wondering themselves about story structure, I highly suggest reading Dan Harmon's Story Structure as a starting point - a short guide that is available totally free online if you just search for it!)

Ugh, I know, I'm being so angsty and not cool. What can I say? I'm a writer.

Anyway, Camp NaNoWriMo was fun and helpful and I would definitely suggest it to other writers, but it was ultimately not the success I hoped it would be for me, personally. Also, I really wish it was a real thing. Like, I wish there was a month-long writer's summer camp for young adults to go to complete with cabins, bonfires, nature, and writer-based activities guided by published authors.

If any such place or event does exists, please point me in the direction of where I can sign up.

Read some of my short stories based on writing prompts at https://www.reddit.com/r/Yackemflaber/

From 2016 to 2017 - Keeping the Momentum Going

Do you like this new graphic? I made it myself with a photo I took of my beautiful wife.

I felt like I should do some end-of-the-year blogging to get some closure on 2016 and publicly express my goals for 2017, especially after writing a lengthy post/essay titled "Spider-Man or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Reboot" that I then decided not to publish because it was basically just me telling the entire story of my love for Spider-Man and expressing my opinions (that nobody asked for) about the upcoming reboot film.

Concerning My 2016 Resolution

I don't actually remember my primary resolution for 2016, and looking back on last year's review, I didn't really state anything specific. Therefore I'm just going to assume my resolution was to complete the second draft of my novel, which I came very close but ultimately failed to do. I do remember, however, resolving to learn to meditate in 2016, which I did a little bit of throughout the year but not as much as I wanted to.

So what did I actually do this year, then? I read a lot more books (the entire Hitchiker's Guide series, several books in the Detective Bosch series, four books in the Series of Unfortunate Events, The Martian, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and Childhood's End), watched a bunch of good movies for the first time (La La Land, Sunshine, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Good Will Hunting, The Revenant, the "Before" trilogy, Spirited Away, High Rise, Begin Again, Deadpool, Ghost in the Shell, There Will Be Blood, Victoria, Carol, Room, Sixteen Candles, Straight Outta Compton, Steve Jobs, Brick, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Memento, Sicario, A Scanner Darkly, Snowpiercer, and more), watched some good TV shows (Westworld, Stranger Things, Black Mirror, Game of Thrones, Better Call Saul, Parks and Recreation, etc), discovered some new music and played the occasional video game (mostly on Android).

I also lost my job, found a better one, got a new phone that lets me play Xcom anywhere, put up a fence in my back yard for my dog, started using Instagram, redesigned the blog to actually look like a writer's blog, started writing short stories based on writing prompts (one of which has gained enough attention for two individuals to ask me if they could adapt it into a short film), made new friends, reconnected with old friends, did a lot of hiking, tried out a few different haircuts, and lost 10 lbs.

2017 Resolutions

First and foremost, I really want to get the second draft of my novel finished and start sending it out to publishers. I'm really close thanks to NaNoWriMo, and I really only need to write the ending, rewrite a secondary character's arc, and punch up the humor and charisma in some parts.

Secondly, I just want to keep writing more, especially those writing prompts, and eventually put a few up on the website for public consumption.

Thirdly, ever since experimenting with mixing music again a few weeks ago and seeing the amazing film La La Land in theaters a few days ago with my wife, it's starting to look like I might finally be learning to play an instrument or two. You see, she grew up playing the violin and guitar, but after seeing Ryan Gosling in La La Land and learning that he trained himself in only three months she's been wanting to learn piano (and her parents have a beautiful one in their home that rarely gets used), and I grew up owning a guitar but not knowing how to play it and always wanted to learn to play the keyboard so I could make some music on the computer without relying entirely on pre-recorded loops. So I'll say my tertiary big goal of 2017 is to learn to play piano and/or guitar, but this just came up recently so we'll see if it really sticks.

Fourthly, I should probably continue to lose weight and get in shape. I did some pilates this year, which proved to be quite enjoyable and challenging, tried to get into a routine of exercising (beyond taking my daily walks) at least once a week, and made an effort to eat healthier or smaller portions, so more of that would be good. Now that the wedding has long passed, my biggest motivation to be healthy and in shape is that I want to be able to keep up and play with my future kids as much as possible.

Lastly, I really just want to keep trying new things in my area. For years, I was stuck in a rut of eating at chain restaurants, shopping at chain stores, and going to the same places to do the same old things, but this year my wife and I made a solid attempt of eating and shopping more locally, as well as visiting parks we'd never been to before and just overall trying to attend more community events like concerts, movies in the park, and beer gardens. More of that is always good fun.

And I still want to do more Tactical Laser Tag. Seriously, I only went once this year.

-Ryan

The Fourth Wall + Padded Cell

You can finally read one of my short stories (and an accompanying flash fiction story) for free online!

It's called "The Fourth Wall" and I've actually been blogging about it for a while (click that link to see all of my blog posts labeled "The Fourth Wall"). The first draft was written ‎February ‎19, ‎2012 for a project for my fiction writing night class, wherein we were to write and share a short story with the class. The professor said that the stories didn't need to be edited or even complete, but I decided that I needed to get the most out of the class and be taken seriously in the process, so I made it my own personal quest to write the best short story out of the entire class. (In my opinion, it was a tie between myself and a friend I made in that very class)

I took an old idea I had about a main character who know's he's the main character, and decided to write a story that was one huge inside joke to English students and my class in particular (including a scene that took place in a night class). The story became about a man who admits himself into a mental health center (referred to as a "nut house") because he was convinced he was the main character of a story that was plot-driven, and he wanted to control his own destiny.

It's a short story with incredible depth to it. There are three or four levels to the story's reality, depending on your interpretation, and it's written to be comedic and lighthearted while still exploring themes such as fate, love, and the philosophy of solipsism (a word I only learned just now).

The accompanying flash fiction story (one page long) is a sequel/summary of The Fourth Wall called "Padded Cell" which I wrote for my college literary and arts magazine simply so I could guarantee that I got published in the magazine (yes I know that sounds egotistical, but it worked).

In the end, these are two stories that have been very well-received, and will only take a short moment of your time to read.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to my GoodReads collection of self-published work and read them for yourself! Please leave comments/reviews on GoodReads or in this post, and share with your bookworm friends! I'd love to hear what you think and it's a great help to spread the words!

Enjoy! And I'm sorry it took so long!
-Ryan

Never Be a Statistic

Today I'm going to share something very personal with you. Today you get inside my mind.

For as long as I can remember (and I have memories that go back to my days in a crib) I've made a conscious effort to be unlike anyone else. This probably doesn't shock you at first, especially if you know me, because my high school quote was "to be yourself is all that you can do," but this mentality goes far beyond being myself.
This is about being something more. This is about being important.

Blame it on being the youngest sibling, blame it on not being athletic, or blame it on the kids who picked on me on the playground and chose me last for every sport, but I've always had the urge to become better than everyone else. I want desperately to prove them wrong.

I'll share a generic example, and then explain the relevancy of this mentality to my writing.

When I was in high school, I had to get some oral surgery, and I was given the option to go under "the gas" as they call it. I talked to my father and brother who had both experienced the effects of Nitrous Oxide, and they described it saying, "It was like a dream, I don't even remember it."
I chose the gas, and I went in with a promise to myself that I would stay conscious and remember every detail of the surgery and the effects of the gas. As soon as I got home I wrote everything down.
I still have that note. It says, for example, that the sound of the surgical instruments sounded like beautiful music to me.
While this example isn't so impressive, it exemplifies my point; that I wanted desperately to be different than the norm, and I focused my mind enough to overcome the forgetfulness that the laughing gas supposedly gave my family.

As I grew up and reaffirmed to myself that I wanted to be an author, I realized that my writing was the best way to separate myself from the rest of the world.

I took writing classes in which I took everyone's critique not as insults to my talent, but as the concrete reactions that I needed desperately to learn from as quickly as possible (in one of my favorite classes, I even set out to make the best short story in the whole class and spent countless hours perfecting the first draft, which wasn't even required to be complete).

While everyone else said "they didn't get my writing," or "it's okay you didn't like it, since it was just a first draft," I said "tell me what you hated about my story."

Many writers complain that they need to be in a particular atmosphere or mood to write; for example, originally, I had to write at night, with hours to spare, and only listening to wordless music.
Now I write at all times of the day, with whatever time I have, listening to whatever the hell I want to.

I then learned that many authors simply stop writing after college. They have no time, or their priorities change.
I promised myself to do more writing than ever, and so far I've done just that.
I get a half an hour unpaid lunch break every day at work, of which I spend only the first ten minutes eating, and then I sit down with a small legal pad and write for the last twenty, every day.

I will continue to strive to be different, better, in all these ways, and there's a new one I've got my eye on.
According to some light internet searching, the average age of a person's first published novel is 36 years old.
I'm going to beat that.

This post is dedicated to everyone who ever brushed me off as a nobody.
I refuse to be a statistic.
-Ryan

What I'm (Apparently) Up To

So I've been writing a novel for my class, and I must admit I'm not as interested in it as I originally was.
I'm not giving up on it completely, but I've admittedly been dragging my feet while writing it and will let it sit on the back burner; writing bits and pieces as I get the urge to do so. Luckily I've managed to keep writing other things on the side as well.
I absolutely love writing short stories, which is complimented by the fact that a lot of the ideas I have are simple and meant for short stories (or perhaps I simply don't attempt to flesh them into larger narratives since I'm so content with short story-writing). In the past few weeks I've finished two short stories (one of which is twice the length of the other), and while they're still drafts full of imperfections, I'm incredibly proud of them and enjoy reading them myself.

So apparently I'm writing a collection of short stories. In the back of my mind I'd always wanted to do this, but I didn't consciously decide to do so. Another interesting thing to note is that the short stories I've written are all connected by characters and a few themes.

Again, I didn't plan to do this. I started overlapping characters because it was easier than coming up with new character names and back stories, and because it's just fun to have the stories connect with each other. As for overlapping themes, this came about because, as I'm getting more and more into writing, I'm discovering what themes and topics are most important or impactful to me at this stage in my life.

This is especially fantastic because it means that putting the stories together into a collection would make even more sense and give them a sort of adhesiveness to each other. It's also great because my fiction stories act somewhat as a nonfiction biography of my mind; they're what I'm thinking of.

On that note, I've also been slacking on my project that biggest impacts you, dear readers; actually releasing something of mine for you to read.
I want you to be reassured that this is happening, but I'm procrastinating because I want it to be perfect (and I'm admittedly a bit scared). Sorry for the delay, but keep checking back here for updates!

It feels nice to have things accidentally fall into place.
-Ryan

A Slightly Larger Victory Dance

It's time for yet another small victory dance!

Last year I got a little poem about zombies accepted into my college student literary and art magazine. While that was fun, it was a bit bittersweet since I'm no poet and I wrote the poem in high school. I decided, as a result, that I needed to get something accepted into the magazine again, but only a prose piece that represented my current quality of writing.

I had just written a fantastic short story called “The Fourth Wall” that I wanted to share with everybody, but unfortunately it was a few thousand words too long. I decided to try my hand at some flash fiction (very short fiction).

The trick to flash fiction is that you have a very limited area in which to tell a story. If a novel is a cake, and a short story is a slice of that cake, flash fiction is one small bite of the cake.

My idea was to write a series of moments.

Of course, if I can only give the readers a taste of the cake, that taste has to be rich and delicious and lousy with flavor (I’m using “lousy” in the traditional meaning here, which is “full of”. My prose stylistics teacher would be proud). Inspired by some very small ideas for stories that I’d been saving in my memory banks, I decided that the weight my flash fiction needed was an emotional tie that everyone understands; the loss of innocence.

I wrote six flash fiction stories about the moments that change us forever, titled each of them after songs by Death Cab For Cutie, and called the collection “Crooked Smiles”. I submitted only five of these six stories, not because one was too incomplete or personal (on the contrary, I felt they were all incomplete and made sure to submit the most personal ones), but because I felt one of them didn’t fit with the rest.

After submitting these five stories, I read them over and realized that they did not represent either my quality or style of writing and instantly regretted submitting each and every one. I tried to be artsy and poetic, when I’d rather be informal and direct.

With the deadline rapidly approaching, I went back to “The Fourth Wall” and quickly conceived of a story that I could write from the main character’s perspective recounting the events that led him to where he is and then contemplating his next move. It would be both a sequel and a summary of the story I originally wanted everyone to see. I wrote it out in one sitting, (titled it “Padded Cell”) looked over it once the next day for edits, and submitted it.

A few months later I heard back, the magazine had accepted two of my submissions! One of which, “Steadier Footing”, was from the collection and the other was “Padded Cell”. The irony was that I thought “Steadier Footing” was the least likely of all the stories to be accepted as it held the least personal significance.

I hope to release "Crooked Smiles" soon,

-Ryan

Last Proper Summer Ending

Well this is the end to my last summer vacation ever.
But it's also the beginning of my last school year ever, and since I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy, I choose to think of it that way.

Last summer I gave a brief summary of the books I had read over the summer, of which there was only one. This summer I am pleased to say that I passed my personal record of books read for pleasure in a short timespan (in this case, Summer) to four and a third ... and some other random pages.
But that doesn't really accurately portray how much more I actually read, considering the first three books were massive novels which together made up The Millennium Trilogy. Each of those novels had above 600 pages or so (depending on the cover and edition) and were an absolutely massive undertaking for me to read.

Easily three of the best books I've ever read.
(image from here)

I had always thought that I was more of a writer than a reader; that I just didn't like reading. Well it turns out instead I had just never found much that I actually loved reading until now (I raced through the second book of the trilogy very quickly).
I followed up The Millennium Trilogy with the latest book by Chuck Palahniuk: Damned, which was an excellent change of pace from the seriousness and drama of the trilogy. It's about a fat thirteen-year-old girl who has died and gone to hell. It was a quick and easy read which I started and finished in a weekend (yet another personal milestone).
Then I moved on to  reading a book that was very important to me at one time, but after getting a third of the way through it I stopped (you can read more about that in my previous post).
Finally I moved on to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but it's not as interesting as it sounds and the novelty wears off quite quickly, and I've since abandoned reading that as well.
It can also be noted that I actually picked up and read the first few chapters of Fifty Shades of Grey somewhere in between all of that, but once all the "does he actually like me?" tension wore off and it turned into erotica I lost interest (though I admit it was quite good up to that point).

So where do I go from here? Four finished books and three unfinished seems like quite the ratio, but the fact of the matter is that I'm still figuring exactly what it is that I like to read, since I'm somewhat new to this. My goal is to next read the classic novel by George Orwell: 1984, which I look forward to very much as I've wanted to read it for quite some time now.

And of course on the side I continue to write. As those who follow me on Twitter saw, I achieved a milestone in my novel a few days ago (which relates to this old post), I've been fiddling with some flash fiction, and I've been making slow but steady steps towards publication of a certain something.

So my "last summer vacation" turned out to be a pretty good one, overall.
-Ryan

Certainly Uncertain

My future is certainly, like anyone else's, uncertain.

As of very recently my interest in writing has been pulling me in multiple directions that it previously never did before. I've been writing a novel and flash fiction stories, I've been pursuing the idea of self-publishing, I've been looking into freelancing for a particular website, and just today I had a great idea for another short story to write. I guess my transition from being a gamer is coming on stronger than even I thought.

With all of that coupled with this upcoming year being my last year at school, my future is headed towards me faster than ever before. It seems that the question of "what will I be when I grow up?" will soon be answered.

I've come a long way, and there's still so much to come.

I am frightened.

It's not that I've been thinking I'll be successfully rich and famous, but the thought of failure still lingers in my mind like a ghost under a bed, and often I'm afraid to set my foot on the ground. Just because I write for the fun of it (though I admit at this stage in life the idea of profiting from it is alluring as well) doesn't mean I won't be completely shattered if nobody wants to read a word I write, and I can't help but wonder if I'll even have the yearning to keep on trying if I miserably fail time after time.

You have no need to fear, of course. I know that the only direction to move is forward. I must set out to fail if I want to succeed. As scary as this is, this is what I love doing.

I'm so fortunate if only to know and be able to do what I love.

-Ryan

Flash Fiction and Publishing

A while ago I wrote about some experimentation that I wanted to get into. Among this was the idea that "I want to try some of the quicker things first, such as flash fiction, since I have dozens of simple scenarios or stories that I want to tell before I lose interest in them".

Well I'm finally getting around to that. I've written one story down that's a page long (single-spaced) and have plans for a few others to write in the near future. The idea is to use these micro-sized stories to give myself a break from the brain-gymnastics of writing and planning out my novel as well as to get some completed content out there into the world as soon and quickly as possible.

I plan on getting some form of new content up on the site before the summer ends, so right now the two likeliest possibilities are my finished short story or a collection of flash fiction stories. Of these two I really have no idea which has a better chance of being released by the end of the summer, as I need to talk to my editor regarding my short story, and I need to have enough completed works of flash fiction to justify a collection. I also hope to self-publish both of these on e-readers.

Wish me luck!
-Ryan

A Small Victory Dance

Well it's about time I accomplished something significant, don't you think?
The good news is that I finally did!
Each year I submit a little something for consideration to be published in my college annual literary magazine, and every year I hear nothing back.
Finally that has changed.
This year I submitted about five of what I thought were my best poems, because despite poetry not being my main interest, I didn't have any short stories good enough to submit. After waiting longer than I was told I would have to wait to hear back, I found out that my poem "Aim for the Head" was accepted into the magazine (you can read it here)!

Don't worry, the poem is about zombies. Not real people.
(I drew this. Copyright Ryan Matejka)

The punchline is I actually submitted that poem last year and heard nothing back.
Also it was written during my junior year at high school.
Also I haven't cared to write a poem in about a year. So here's a haiku:

My poetry sucks
I would rather write fiction
But haikus are fun

So yeah, I'm getting published. Next year I guess I'll submit some stories and hope for the best.

Cool beans.
-Ryan

Not Just a New Year

I have no idea where that year went. It was certainly shorter than 2010 right?

Actually it was an incredibly stressful year as far as my personal and school life goes.

Good thing I have you all to talk to.

This is indeed an exciting time of my life. I'm becoming an adult (and will be turning 21-years-old in February) and am quickly being faced with how I am to live my adult life. To be honest I'm excited and nervous, but that's not what I want to talk about today.

I don't want to reflect on the last year right now, and I don't want to talk about the upcoming year either. That's what everyone else is doing on their blogs. You don't want to read more of that.

Firstly I should explain my Christmas gift to you guys. I should but I really don't want to because that would ruin the fun. Let's just say it has something to do with something I've mentioned before that I've been working on. Oh, and it was written in pencil on receipt paper.

Secondly I am totally excited to say that with the money I got for Christmas, I was able to buy myself a brand new Nook Color! This means that I can finally start to see exactly what the world of independent authors publishing on e-readers is like, which is good since I'll potentially be a part of that world someday on the horizon. I was honestly worried I wouldn't want to use it for books since it can browse the web and play apps, but it turns out that having the ability to shop for millions of books at my fingertips is somewhat like the cliche metaphor of throwing a kid into a candy store, granted you throw him through the door and don't accidentally direct his body into the window or pavement.

Lastly I couldn't be happier to announce that coming up this month will mark a whole year since I got engaged, and a whole four years since I started dating my fiancée. If men who venture to get the affection of women call themselves "players" then I daresay I'm "winning the game".

I'll get to talking about all that aforementioned stuff later this month, mmkay?

Here's hoping things to according to plan this year.

-Ryan

Scary Times

I'm entering a very scary but exciting time in my writing.
On one hand I'm becoming incredibly serious and excited about my future in writing. I've been formulating ideas for publishing/releasing my stories, figuring out some interesting ideas for the stories themselves, and getting closer and closer to finishing the second draft of my longest story yet.

But on the other hand I have once again come to question whether or not I am as good as I think I am. Publishing/Releasing my works means totally exposing an area I've so far only shared among my closest friends and family. I may be writing purely for the fun of it, but I still think it's the one and only thing I'm really good at, which means that the first person to tell me otherwise could crush my spirit completely. It's a complicated and contradictory feeling.
I feel confident that I am better at writing than most, simply because most people don't even try or have an interest in writing like I do, but how do I stack up against the people who do?

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Regarding the secret writing project I alluded to in the last post; I'm at a kind of standstill with writing it right now, but am making progress mentally about how I plan to go about it. Remember to check back here for updates, or subscribe with your email address to the right to get emailed every time I post, or "Follow" with your Google account to stay up-to-date!

Wish me luck!
Ryan
PS: the tabs you see at the top are currently links to my website, I am still sorting out how to get all that content to the blog itself.
UPDATE: THE TABS ARE DONE NOW! CHECK THEM OUT!

My Stance on Publishing

With the end of my first longer-than-a-short-story story in sight, the topic of publishing has come up in my mind more frequently than before. It's definitely something I should think about, and it's about the right time to do so. The issue is that I need to first understand what I actually think about the whole idea.
The way I see it, I have three options:

1. Seek publication from some sort of publishing house
2. Self-publish on e-readers (Kindle, Nook, etc.)
3. Upload to my website for free

 The way I see it if I do go the route of option #1 I'm not going to try very hard before moving on to option #2. Not because I'm one of those stubborn authors who believes that if their work isn't loved immediately then the publishers are evil and don't know what they're missing, but because as much as I am serious about writing I don't feel all that serious about going through too much trouble to try to profit from it.
"But Ryan, isn't it every aspiring author's dream to get published by a major publisher and make a living off of writing forever?"
Yes, and that would be very nice, but it's not why I write. I don't write because I want to profit from it, I write because I love to invent, plan, and create stories that interest me. Publication and economic gain is an afterthought, kind of like "well if I happen to be sitting on a pile of money, why not take some?" rather than "gee I had better find a pile of money". This is also justified by the fact that I am a college student with hopes of getting a degree and job in a field unrelated to my love of writing, so it's not like I'm depending on my writing to stay above the poverty line.

Now if only I could think of a title for this story.
-Ryan

The Physical Rough Draft

Recently I just finished writing a story in a college-ruled 1-subject notebook. What makes this so special is that I took up the entire notebook with the story, whereas usually my stories would only last a few hand-written pages because I've had trouble making them much longer. Now I admit that although the notebook advertises 70 pages on the front, it was a slightly used notebook in which I counted exactly 43 pages ... but still; this is a personal accomplishment nonetheless!

Something else that makes this paper-written draft special is just that: it's written on paper. The first short story I ever wrote (the one which I wrote for a class as a last-minute assignment but sparked my interest in being a writer) was a page long and typed on my parent's home computer. I haven't penned a whole rough draft of anything since before computers were a practical tool for doing so (remember way back when you'd type it out and the program would crash, causing you to loose all your unsaved data? that's the last time I wrote on paper). When the computer became a reliable way to write out a rough draft (and of course after I learned to type) I never looked back. Maybe I would hand-write the first page or so of an idea down if I was away from a computer or in class, but that was it.

So what caused me to go back to the age-old style?
Nothing special. I was bored in class and had a story stuck in my head. The only difference was that it stuck with me so much that I couldn't pull away the day after that, or the day after, etc. ... I wrote a 43 page (college-ruled) story almost entirely during class time (don't worry, as my recent test scores have proven I managed to pay attention at the same time). The reason being that I've never really been able to find much time to write when I'm at home. Even in high school I was always too distracted by homework or video games to write a single story. Somehow it turned out that I was the most inspired to write when I technically had absolutely no "free time". Even during spring break I could only be bothered to write on one of the last days despite my incredible interest in the story.

Speaking of my interest: I had more interest in this story than any story I've ever written (or thought out) and the only reason I can think of is that this story is somehow more meaningful than anything I've ever written.
This one could influence people's lives.
Without giving anything away: it's not eerie or supernatural or fantasy like most of what I've written or thought of; it's basically a love story that spans a lifetime, and it's honestly probably the best story I've ever written by far. Normally I would be nervous to say that before anyone else has read it, and because as a writer I feel I should be modest about my work and not have high-hopes, but I really believe it.

So now the next steps are to type it up, flesh out the bits I may have rushed, give it a title, and who knows ... maybe I can get it published.

The best part? I know exactly what story I'm going to write next, and I'm just as excited for that one as I am for this one.

This is me finally taking my talent and love of writing seriously.
-Ryan